Gilad Shalit

Thursday night, members of Chicago's Jewish community will stand in vigil, focused on the fate of Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli held hostage by Hamas. Our concern for him is just the tip of the iceberg. Shalit is now entering his fifth year of captivity at the hands of Gaza's terrorist rulers. A then-19-year-old soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, Shalit was abducted from inside Israel by a Hamas terror squad on June 25, 2006. Contrary to international law and all standards of decency,...

We should not leave our soldiers behind, no matter what. The Israelis understood that and exchanged more than 1,000 terrorists with blood on their hands for Gilad Shalit. Sure this encourages Hamas and Hezbollah to kidnap more Israelis, but freeing captives, pidyon shvuyim , is a sacrosanct Talmudic principle. Under our justice system Bowe Bergdahl is innocent until proven guilty. If indeed he is proven guilty, a big if, he should be court-martialed and convicted...

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ignored an ultimatum set by Palestinian militants holding an Israeli soldier and ordered the army Tuesday to target "terrorists and those who sent them"--an apparent threat to Syria. The militants holding19-year-old Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit said they would not kill him--"if he is still alive"--even though Israel flouted their deadline to start freeing Palestinian prisoners.

* Release agreed after Israel, Palestinians feared unrest * Some 5,000 Palestinian prisoners still held by Israel By Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Israel freed a Palestinian prisoner from jail on Monday, completing a deal agreed earlier this year in exchange for him halting a lengthy hunger strike that almost killed him. Samer al-Issawi stopped his eight-month, on-off fast last April. His confinement had stoked weeks of...

After six months of silence, Palestinian militants holding a captured Israeli soldier released the first details of the serviceman's condition Tuesday, saying he is in "good health" and being treated according to "Islamic standards." But the militants said they are prepared to keep Cpl. Gilad Shalit until Israel meets their demand for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. The impasse has held up peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians. A spokesman for...

ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (Reuters) - Israel displayed on Sunday what it called a Palestinian "terror tunnel" running into its territory from the Gaza Strip and said it was subsequently freezing the transfer of building material to the enclave. "The discovery of the tunnel ... prevented attempts to harm Israeli civilians who live close to the border and military forces in the area," Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement, accusing Gaza's ruling Hamas...

On a day of high emotion for both sides in the Mideast conflict, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza joyously welcomed home 19 female prisoners, exchanged with Israel for a video proving that an Israeli soldier captured more than three years ago and held in a clandestine jail is alive and well. The video of Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit was televised by Israeli channels hours after officials judged it to be authentic Friday. Shalit appeared thin but healthy in the video and said he was...

One of the most beloved comedies on Israeli television today concerns a hapless Arab journalist balancing family, work and an unquenchable desire to blend in with his Jewish peers. "Arab Labor," whose Hebrew name, " Avoda Aravit ," cheekily refers to a racial slur for lowbrow work, was a risk for Keshet when it premiered in 2007. In a Hebrew-speaking nation, it features Arab characters and mostly Arabic dialogue. Its storylines tease out the very serious issues of racism, cronyism...

Israel, which until now flatly had ruled out a release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the freeing of an Israeli soldier held captive by militants, hinted it might be willing after all to consider an indirect deal that would free the abducted Israeli first and some Palestinian prisoners later. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told a business gathering that if Cpl. Gilad Shalit is released and Palestinian militants stop firing rockets into Israel, "Israel will need to, after some period,...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails declared a one-day fast on Tuesday in solidarity with four inmates whose hunger strike has fuelled anti-Israel protests in the occupied West Bank. Samer al-Issawi, one of the four Palestinians who have been on hunger strike, has been refusing food, intermittently, for more than 200 days. His lawyer says his health has deteriorated. Gaunt and wheelchair-bound, Issawi appeared on...

Hamas militants involved in seizing an Israeli soldier whom they have held captive for 10 months said over the weekend that they had sent Israeli officials, through Egyptian mediators, a list of Palestinian prisoners they would demand released in exchange for freeing him. The Israeli news media reported that Israeli government officials confirmed receiving the list of about 450 names and would review it. A spokesman for Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum,...

JERUSALEM, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas have been in regular conflict since the rise to prominence of the Palestinian Islamist group, created in 1987 at the start of the first Intifada uprising against Israeli occupation. Here is a timeline of some of the key moments. March 22, 2004 - After a wave of Hamas suicide bombings in Israeli cities, an Israeli missile kills Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the Hamas movement. April 17 -...

We should not leave our soldiers behind, no matter what. The Israelis understood that and exchanged more than 1,000 terrorists with blood on their hands for Gilad Shalit. Sure this encourages Hamas and Hezbollah to kidnap more Israelis, but freeing captives, pidyon shvuyim , is a sacrosanct Talmudic principle. Under our justice system Bowe Bergdahl is innocent until proven guilty. If indeed he is proven guilty, a big if, he should be court-martialed and convicted...

* Iran and its allies could carpet Israel with rockets * Opinion mixed on how to confront Iran's nuclear plans * With last big war long past, some doubt Israeli morale By Dan Williams JERUSALEM, Aug 13 (Reuters) - For Israel to carry out a long-threatened strike on Iranian nuclear sites, it would have to overcome dissent within its governing coalition reflecting public fear of igniting an unprecedented missile war. Prime Minister Benjamin...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with French television Friday that an Israeli soldier captured in Gaza who has been held by Palestinian militants for 10 months will soon be released. Abbas told France 24 television that efforts were under way to secure the liberation of Cpl. Gilad Shalit. "He will be freed shortly," said Abbas, a moderate whose Fatah party entered into a coalition government with Hamas last month. This was not the first...

By Greg Myre and Steven Erlanger, New York Times News Service | July 6, 2006

Large numbers of Israeli tanks and troops moved deeper into northern Gaza early Thursday morning to take up new positions near former Israeli settlements abandoned and destroyed a year ago. The deeper incursion, by tanks and armored personnel carriers with their headlights off, began just before 2 a.m., hours after the Israeli government ordered the military to expand its operations against Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The goal is to free a captured Israeli soldier and halt...